How much
will this cost?
Is Electronic
Record Storage Legal?
What is
Paperless Archiving?
Why
should I consider Paperless Archiving?
Is this
process safe?
Do
I need special software or equipment?
Why use
a CD-ROM?
What do
I have to do to prepare?
How secure
are my records?
What happens
to my records if technology changes?
How much will this
cost?
The cost of archiving
your records is a one-time cost. Most businesses will see a
dramatic savings over the required storage life of a document while
improving security and accessibility.
To arrive at a reliable cost estimate ARCHIVE-CD will inventory
your documents. This inventory includes:
- 1. Estimating the number
of records, documents, or files to be converted.
- A single piece of paper with
writing on one side (simplex) is counted as one. A single piece
of paper with writing on both sides (duplex) is counted as two.
Generally one four drawer file cabinet will hold about 10,000
pages. Estimate total pages. Download the
FREE
Scanimator
-
- 2. Assessing the condition
and format of the records, documents, or files.
- Evaluate the records, documents,
or files for:
a. Orientation of the print:
Portrait (8.5 x 11) vs. Landscape (11 x 8.5).
b. Size of the paper: Legal, Letter, postcard, other.
c. Information content: Print, Drawings, or Photographs.
d. Condition of the records, documents, or files: Are
there any folds, tears, holes, staples, paper clips, or sticky
notes. Are the papers aligned neatly and uniform sizes or loose,
consisting of many sizes and weights of paper?
e. Background color and color of print.
f. Types of Binding: Are the records, documents, or files
loose, or bound in documents. If bound, the type of binding.
g. Presence of any special Seals (e.g. Notary) that may
need to be enhanced to be visible to scanners.
- 3. Evaluating the indexing
system.
- How are your records currently
indexed? Do you use a client's name or a unique number to index
your records? Archive-CD offers several indexing options.
Archive-CD focuses on those files
that are required to be kept but are seldom accessed.
If a record, document, or file needs frequent additions, deletions,
or changes Archive-CD can offer alternative cost-effective solutions
to better meet your needs. ARCHIVE-CD's Quality Control also verifies
documents to ensure that all information from the records, documents,
or files is accurately and completely transferred
to the CD-ROM.
In most cases
your cost will be just "Pennies a Page!
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Is Electronic Record Storage Legal?
Check your state's requirements.
Oregon State Laws on Optical Images
192.050 Copying
records; evidentiary effect. A state agency or political subdivision
may, with the approval of the proper budgetary authority, cause
any public records in its official custody to be photocopied or
captured by digital imaging system as in the case of original filings
or recordings or recorded by means of analog or digital audio and
video tape technology. Each photocopy, digital image
and analog or digital audio and video tape shall be made in accordance
with the appropriate standard as determined by the State Archivist.
Every such reproduction shall be deemed an original; and
a transcript, exemplification or certified copy of any such reproduction
shall be deemed a transcript, exemplification or certified copy,
as the case may be, of the original.
<[Amended by 1961 c.160 s.6; 1991 c.671 s.4]>
Source--Oregon
Revised Statutes, Chapter 192.
333-071-0000-- Medical Records (5)
The medical records shall be filed in a manner which renders them
easily retrievable. Medical records shall be protected against
unauthorized access, fire, water and theft.
(6) Medical records are the property of the health
care facility. The medical record, either in original, electronic
or microfilm form, shall not be removed from the institution except
where necessary for a judicial or administrative proceeding. Authorized
personnel of the Division shall be permitted to review medical records.
When a health care facility uses off-site storage for medical records,
arrangements must be made for delivery of these records to the health
care facility when needed for patient care or other health care
facility activities. Precautions must be taken to protect patient
confidentiality.
(7) All medical records shall be kept for a period
of at least ten years after the date of last discharge. Original
medical records may be retained on paper, microfilm, electronic
or other media.
(10) All original clinical records or photographic
or electronic facsimile thereof, not otherwise incorporated in the
medical record, such as X-rays, electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms,
and radiological isotope scans shall be retained for seven years
after patient's last discharge if professional interpretations of
such graphics are included in the medical records.
Source--Department
of Human Services, Oregon Health Division; Division 71; Special
Inpatient Care Facilities
CMS (Center for Medicare
& Medicaid Services) formerly HCFA (Health Care Finance Administration)
authorizes computerized health records as long as they are maintained
in a form that can be reproduced legally. In addition, the Medicare
Conditions of Participation for hospitals, Medical Records Services
specify that hospitals must use a system of record maintenance that
ensures the integrity of the authentication of the record and protects
security of all record entries.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
(JCAHO) has permitted the computerization of medical records for
many years. The legal concern is whether state laws permit electronic
storage of records. State laws regulate authorized media for health
records typically in their licensure statutes or administrative
regulations.
Source --
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
AHIMA
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What is Paperless Archiving?
Paperless Archiving is the conversion of records, documents, or
files into an electronic image representing the actual page. This
electronic image is stored on an easily accessed CD-ROM disk. It
can quickly be retrieved as needed. It is recommended that
at least two copies of a disk be made. One copy to be used on-site.
The second copy to be stored off-site in a secure area. City, County,
or State agencies should make a third copy to store with their respective
governmental agency.
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Why should I consider
Paperless Archiving?
In a study it was estimated that on average, each employee wastes
eight (8) hours per week on paper documents.
The eight hours are calculated as:
- Hard to find documents. (1 hour)
- Document content is hard to manipulate and re-purpose. (1.5
hours)
- Documents are hard to update. (1 hour)
- Documents are hard to share. (1 hour)
- Document content is hard to publish consistently. (.5 hour)
- Document creation is an ad hoc process. (.5 hour)
- Importance of document content is not obvious. (.5 hour)
- Paper based distribution and storage is costly. (1 hour)
- Paper based archiving is expensive and inefficient for retrieval.
(.5 hours)
Source: The Gartner
Group.
Archived paper documents, those records needing to be retained but
seldom accessed are impacted by many of the above measures. Archived
paper documents waste approximately five (5) hours of employee time
per week (a,d,e,g,h,& i.).
An employee
at the minimum wage of $6.50 per hour could potentially waste
$1,690.00 per year handling old records.
(Multiply the average wage per hour
per employee times 5 hours per week and times 52 weeks per year.)
Some additional statistics suggest that:
- Companies spend $20 in labor to file a document, $120 in
labor to find a misfiled document, and $220 in labor to reproduce
a lost document.
- 7.5% of all documents get lost, 3% of the remainder get
misfiled.
- Professionals spend 5-15% of their time reading information,
but up to 50% looking for it.
- The average document gets copied 19 times.
- There are over 4 trillion paper documents in the U.S. alone—growing
at the rate of 22% per year.
Source: Coopers & Lybrand
- Thirty percent of corporate printed documents are out of
date before they are distributed.
- Obsolete documents account for up to 30% of document expenditures.
- Document management claims 40 to 60% of office workers'
time and 20 to 40% of labor costs.
- Seventy percent of white collar time is spent on processing
paper.
- Eighty-five percent of documents filed are never retrieved.
Source: CAP
Ventures -- Facilities Design & Management, April 2001
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Is this process safe?
Yes it is.
Your documents are converted to an electronic image format similar
to that used by the U.S. Government to archive their documents.
The electronic image is then reviewed for accuracy before being
saved on a CD-ROM disk.
Your original documents remain unchanged and the process captures
every bit of information including pictures and handwritten notes,
exactly like the original!
One consideration to keep in mind is the quality of the CD-ROM
disk. Some disks can safely store data for only a short period of
time, five years or less, while other types of disks are more suited
to long term or archival storage. Some manufacturers claim that
stored data will last 100 years. In reality, CD-R disk storage in
an office environment should keep data accessible for at least fifty
years.
How do you tell the difference in disk quality?
Disks suited
to short periods of storage use a cyanine dye polymer that gives
it a greenish tinge when held up to the light. Long-term storage
disks are created with a phthalocyanine dye polymer that gives a
disk a gold color look.
In both cases, CD-ROM disks are made of plastic resins and are sensitive
to ultraviolet light. Keep your disks out of direct sunlight and
limit exposure to fluorescent lights.
Proper handling and storage of your disks will keep your data safe
and accessible for many years.
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Do I need special software or equipment?
No you don't.
You will need a computer with a CD-ROM and Adobe Reader®.
The Adobe Reader is FREE.
If you don't have this software go to
Adobe for your free copy. Using Acrobat Reader you will
be able to read your documents exactly as they were archived.
You DO NOT have to buy any special equipment or software to read
your documents archived by ARCHIVE-CD.
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Why
use a CD-ROM?
(Also, See Storage Chart)
Compact Disks (CD’s) are available in most personal computers
(PC’s). ARCHIVE-CD recommends storing your records on CD-ROM
for the reasons noted below. Although many electronic image
storage solutions are currently available, each has its Pros
and Cons as noted below:
- CD-ROM
(Compact Disc-Read Only Memory):
Pros: Currently the lowest-cost permanent storage
medium available. Its storage capacity is 650 (MB) megabytes,
the equivalent of approximately 10,000 pages or one four-drawer
file cabinet. Once written to CD-ROM the document cannot
be altered. CD-ROM’s are standard for most computers sold
today in either PC or MAC. Some manufacturers claim that
stored data will last 100 years. In reality, CD-R disk storage
in an office environment should keep data accessible for
at least fifty years.
Cons: Somewhat limited storage capacity when considering
large picture files found in hospital and patient records.
- COLD (Computer Output on Laser Disks):
Pros: Provides multi-user access, easily indexed,
all users can access data at same time.
Cons: Extremely expensive for small and medium sized
businesses. Requires specialized hardware and software.
- DVD:
Pros:
Offers more
storage capacity than CD-ROM, approximately 4.7 GB (gigabytes).
The newer Dual-Layer DVD burners allow for more than 8 GB
of storage.
Cons: More expensive than CDs. DVD is not standard for
all PC’s. DVD still has different standards between brands,
much like the difference between VHS and Beta video tapes.
- HARD DRIVE / RAID STORAGE
:
Pros: Hard Drives are
increasingly inexpensive storing up to 700 GB of information.
Cons: Generally requires that the PC be physically opened,
the hard drive installed, and the computer BIOS reconfigured.
Information access is limited to the specific PC unless
the PC is networked in a Local Area Network (LAN) or other
system. RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) storage
uses two or more identically sized hard drives linked together
to share information. Both the LAN and the RAID options
are more expensive requiring specialized hardware and software.
- MAGNETO-OPTICAL
(MO):
Pros:
Offers large storage
possibilities with low cost.
Cons: A variety of required hardware and software options
make it difficult to use across different PC’s.
- MAGNETIC TAPE:
Pros:
Offers large storage
possibilities with low cost. Can store up to 150 GB although
20-40 GB is more common.
Cons: A variety of required hardware and software options
make it difficult to use across different PC’s.
- MICROFILM, Microfiche:
Pros:
Microfilm has
been in use for years and is a stable medium for archiving
documents. There have been some problems with some
processing methods resulting in the degradation of the microfilm
/ microfiche.
Cons: Relatively expensive, requires special equipment
to convert to and read from microfilm. Not easily indexed
and it cannot be used across different PC’s.
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What do I have to
do to prepare?
You don't have to
do anything.
Just provide ARCHIVE-CD,
LLC access to your documents.
ARCHIVE-CD, LLC will process your documents at your site or
the ARCHIVE-CD, LLC office.
ARCHIVE-CD, LLC will remove staples, paper clips, bindings,
etc. Any repairs to torn pages are also be made at this time.
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How secure are my
records?
There
are two issues to be considered when discussing records
security.
The first is the physical security.
Are the records secure from unauthorized access? Are
the records safe from harm due to fire, water, wind,
or theft ? See Disaster Recovery
The second, concerns the ability to
change a record
from the original.
ARCHIVE-CD saves a copy of the original to a CD disk.
This copy is an exact duplicate of the original. It
can be printed or copied but it can not be altered after
being archived on the CD-ROM disk. The archived record
can be used like the original and is a legally accepted
means of document storage.
See
The Protection and Storage of Public Records
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What happens
to my records if technology changes?
Good Question! Technology is changing all the time.
(See Digital Imaging)
For years, Microfilming, despite its cost, has been the primary
means of archiving old documents. Unlike microfilm, archiving
your documents in a digital format enables them to be easily
converted into new technology as it becomes available.
DVD is the next logical step. USB
thumb drives, also known as micro drives, continue to expand
their storage capacity. Current capacity is 8 GB and the
USB drive plugs into any USB port.
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